Location Amorris Drive Yards

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SITE LORE

AMORRIS DRIVE YARDS

DESCRIPTION

The Amorris Drive Yards are a collection of largely improvised docks and shipyards located in the Amorris system, grid coordinates O-6 in the Outer Rim. The ADY is a lawless, unregulated haven for pirates, con-beings and outlaw techs, controlled by no single government or corporation. Beyond the jurisdiction of the New Republic and the Free Worlds Alliance, the yards at Amorris are among the largest centers of illicit shipbuilding and sales in the Galaxy.

HISTORY

The original base of the Cavrilhu Pirates.​

Beginning construction in the latter years of the Galactic Civil War, the first elements of what would come to be known as the Amorris Drive Yards were built as a base for the Cavrilhu Pirates, a band of opportunistic criminals. Although they practiced conventional piracy as well, the Cavrilhu were known for various side-businesses, and hit upon a particularly profitable one when they reverse engineered the SoroSuub Corporation's Preybird-class starfighter and began building their own on an improvised production line, selling counterfeit examples to various third parties. Cavrilhu-built Preybirds were used by many other pirate bands before long, and even by some semi-legitimate concerns, including various Imperial remnant factions. This success led the Cavrilhu Pirates to expand their operation.

Although all shipbuilding activity in the Amorris system was nominally controlled by the Cavrilhu Pirates, it had taken on a life of its own. Before long, outlaw techs from across the sector were coming to Amorris to find work in the ever-expanding shipyard facilities. By this time, the yards were not only producing Preybirds; the operation had diversified into the production of other starfighters, starhoppers, light freighters and various other craft. A large asteroid field within the system was essentially hollowed out, with various production lines, repair docks, administrative facilities and even mining operations for raw materials.

Around 20 ABY, Cavrilhu Pirate control of the ADY had essentially come to an end. The yards had grown far beyond the pirates' ability to oversee, and various other criminal enterprises began to move in themselves. For several years, vicious power struggles over control of parts of the yards were commonplace between a number of different gangs, syndicates and pirate bands. In an unprecedented move, however, control was wrested from all of these groups; a labor union, made up of contracted outlaw techs and various other independent staff, rose up to chase out the other criminals, who they saw as being bad for business. Although it remained firmly outside the law, the ADY now governed itself, becoming studiously neutral in all outside affairs. Under the new management, third parties were permitted to lease areas of the yards, but were forbidden from fighting. This strict "neutral ground" policy was enforced by a large internal security force, backed up by a truly formidable fleet composed of the best starfighters and other ships credits could copy.

The ADY was one of the few entities within the Outer Rim which managed to resist First Order control during the First Order-Resistance war. Though numerous attempts were made to take over the yards, both through subversion and brute force, all such attempts were thwarted by internal security agents and pilots. During the conflict, the ADY administration continued its policy of neutrality, although its "tenants" were known to sell ships to both the Resistance and the First Order all through the conflict, among other groups. After the war, business continued more or less as usual.

In the present day, the Amorris Drive Yards continue to operate as they almost always have. Due to a decrease in demand for dedicated warships, however, many of the yards' tenants have turned to building copies of popular freighters and bulk cruisers rather than corvettes and starfighters, although these can still be found as well.

STRUCTURE

A counterfeit TIE production facility, somewhere in the ADY.​

The Amorris Drive Yards are primarily located in an asteroid field which orbits the primary of the Amorris system. After over a century of expansion, the yards occupy almost every rock and moonlet in the field to some degree, from vast production facilities located inside hollowed-out planetoids to mining operations quarrying raw materials from others. Unlike some other shipyards, which were constructed with some degree of central planning and foresight, the ADY has expanded opportunistically, with seemingly no rhyme or reason to its layout. The yard's administrative authority is content to take a hands-off approach to infrastructure planning; tenants are granted a lease to a given area of the yard, and are free to develop it as they wish, so long as it does not directly interfere with any of the other tenants.

The ADY does not just include mines, shipyards and administrative facilities. Due to the large number of workers employed there, many recreational areas also exist, from dive cantinas all the way up to holotheaters, sport centers and glitzy casinos. Residential facilities also exist, again from dingy capsule-style "efficiency" apartments to private luxury space stations; many beings live in their own ships, however.

The ADY can build almost anything, from light starhoppers all the way up to bulk freighters. This stops short of large capital ships; no currently existing facility in the yards can handle anything bigger than a heavy frigate, and due to the network of leases preventing serious expansion by any one manufacturer, this is unlikely to change.

CULTURE

Typical cantina in the ADY.​

The ADY is anchored by a number of large tenant "corporations," the majority of which are owned wholly or at least in part by various criminal operations, although there are some outliers who are merely dishonest in their marketing. These major firms are almost all devoted to the production and sale of starships, and many have names based on more legitimate manufacturers. These include monikers like the Inkom Company, FreeTec Incorporated, Corellian Engine Corporation, Kuwatt Drive Fields, Seinfeld Fleet Systems, SuruSoob Corporation, Supbro Company, Gitrok Industries and others. Although many of these corporations would be sued out of existence based on their names alone in some other parts of the Galaxy, the fact that they base their operations primarily in the ADY insulates them from most forms of legal action.

Below these major players is an ecosystem of smaller tenants, mostly supplying components and sub-assemblies to larger ones, although a few specialty firms exist which can build entire ships to order, or which modify existing vessels to custom specifications.

As indicated by the names of the ADY's major tenants, the manufacturing that goes on there is decidedly shady. Many ships produced by the ADY are at least cosmetic if not outright copies of existing models from more legitimate companies, both past and present. The quality of these copies ranges from dangerously slap-dash to better than the original, although trending more toward the former.

Many of the beings who find employment at the various yards are itinerant workers, moving from contract to contract. Although some tenants retain a permanent work-force, this is a rare occurrence. Competition for the best contracts is often intense, and labor disputes can occasionally turn deadly; despite official prohibitions, gang violence is common. Although the ADY's internal security agents are mostly successful at preventing open warfare between the various tenants, the threat of conflict is always simmering in the background.

SECURITY

Typical armor worn by an Amorris Patrol agent.​

The ADY's security forces are known as the Amorris Patrol, otherwise known as the AP or simply the Patrol. The Patrol, though it seems to many outsiders to be just another gang, is in its way as professional and dedicated to their mission as more legitimate law enforcement agencies like the Sector Rangers. The Patrol's mandate, by comparison, is very simple; keep the peace in the ADY, by any means necessary.

The Patrol is composed mainly of former pirates, mercenaries and bounty hunters, although they are held to a higher standard than the average scum that is accepted into many criminal and corporate security forces. They are chosen for their loyalty, intelligence and integrity, as well as their proficiency both with a blaster and the controls of a starfighter. Agents of the Patrol are to the enforcers of various criminal enterprises what such enforcers are to normal people, and are not to be trifled with lightly. At the same time, Patrol agents are surprisingly moral; though they employ the tactics and reasoning of criminals, they will often go out of their way to see that justice is done, after a fashion. More often than not, "justice" takes the form of a blaster bolt to the back of the neck rather than a trial in a court of law, but those who receive such punishment are widely considered to have deserved their fate, rather than being the innocent victims of random gang violence.

The Patrol is not as highly standardized as many other law enforcement agencies, with a great deal of emphasis being placed on the individual preferences of each agent, from the details of their uniforms up through the types of ships they pilot. In general, however, agents of the Patrol are excellent fighters, often with some form of combat experience from their former professions. Patrol agents are expected to be proficient with blasters or some other ranged weapon of choice, as well as armed and unarmed melee combat. They are expected to be better-than-average pilots, and are experienced in the practical application of snubfighter tactics. Although they are most often called upon to repel and/or hunt down over-ambitious pirates and other criminals, they have proven formidable opponents even to professional military pilots at various times in the past, and even successfully repelled attacks by the First Order during the war a century ago.

In general, Amorris Patrol agents are tasked with enforcing the ADY's policy of neutrality among its tenants. Patrol agents only rarely leave the ADY.

GOVERNMENT

The government of the ADY is essentially a combination of a labor union, a property management group and an organized crime syndicate. Known as the Amorris Drive Yards Authority, or simply the Authority, the ADY's government is solely concerned with divvying up the various territories in the asteroid field among its tenants, as well as preventing open warfare between said tenants. For its services, which include the maintenance of certain infrastructure, general peacekeeping and the deflection of Galactic authorities, the Authority is paid an annual fee by the tenants. The Authority's laws are simple, and are often selectively enforced, but tenant corporations and residents break them at their own peril. Mob tactics are often used to penalize violators.

INTENT

To create a sort of Star Wars version of the real-life Khyber Pass region. However, instead of manufacturing knock-off weapons, this region instead produces counterfeit spacecraft and components. It would be an area for role-playing, and would be the place to go for characters to acquire unusual vessels or get work done on their existing craft.

 

[Logan]

Approved.